[Siheung Police Station Investigation Official: Sigh... It's so small, the face (of the body). It breaks my heart...]

Police and forensic investigators remove layers of blankets buried in the ground.

The skeletal remains were found in a curled-up position; it was the body of a young child who had not even reached 30 months of age.

The full story of a recent child abuse death case in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province, has been revealed, sending shockwaves through society.

In March of this year, a student who had just entered elementary school visited the school with their mother the day after the entrance ceremony to submit an experiential learning application before leaving. When the student did not return to school after the designated period, the school grew suspicious and reported it, triggering an investigation.

Police tracked the biological mother's mobile phone location and apprehended the mother, identified as Kim, and her former partner, identified as Lim, at a nearby motel. During the investigation, Kim provided inconsistent statements, claiming she had "left the child with an aunt" or "sent the child for adoption." However, the truth came to light when Lim confessed that the child had already died and that he had buried the body.


[Choi Min-sung/Chief Specialist, National Forensic Service: The soft tissues of the body were almost entirely gone, with only a small portion remaining. The hair and bones were also almost completely separated. The decay had reached the point where even the ligaments connecting the bones had disappeared.]

The investigation revealed that the child died in 2020 at the hands of the mother and was buried in a mountain by her former partner, Lim. Kim had used loopholes in the school enrollment deferral system and administrative procedures to cover up the child's death for six years.

To avoid detection by administrative agencies, she even went as far as to use Lim's 9-year-old niece as a body double, taking her to school.

The student who submitted the experiential learning application and left was, in fact, Lim's niece.

[Professor Lee Se-won/Department of Social Welfare, Kangwon National University: It is easier to detect child abuse once children enter elementary or middle school because they are required to attend. However, infants and toddlers do not appear in such public systems. There is no state intervention during the 6 to 7 years from birth until the time they enter school.]

Netizens, upon hearing of this horrific and unbelievable case, poured out their anger, with comments such as, "That is not a mother, that is a demon," and "Both the biological mother and the former partner should be sentenced to death."

In response to this case, the government announced that, to strengthen institutional safeguards, it has been conducting a full-scale investigation since May, deploying dedicated personnel to track children aged 6 and under who are considered at-risk due to a lack of medical records.

Reported by Yoon Seong-sik | Video edited by Seo Byeong-uk | Video source: Unanswered Questions Episode 1492 | Produced by SBS Digital News